Chapter 3: Cassie's Decision

Mr. Douglas stood there for at least 30 seconds. Cassie stole a few glances at him, but he didn't seem to be paying attention at her. Instead, his eyes were trained on Amanda. The young woman was shooting hoops with more passion than Cassie ever could, bringing a surprising level of attention to an otherwise boring event. Unfortunately, this only made her more appealing on the outside.

Finally, the large teacher took a step forward.

She's looking awfully hot today. I wonder what it'll feel like to press myself against her back...

Cassie bit her lips as she realized what was about to happen. This was bad. Really bad. Even with her powers, she was ultimately still just a young woman. A 16 year-old girl who just happened to be bestowed the powers of a god. All it took was for a grownup to raise his or her voice to make her feel intimidated. As much as the silver armor and her powers made her feel empowered, she still felt tiny in front of the bald teacher.

Perhaps the best thing for her to do was to stand by and turn a blind eye on all this. After all, she wasn't the one in trouble. As for Amanda...the most Mr. Douglas could do here was touch her inappropriately. That was it.

There were just a few problems with sitting by and letting it happen. First, Amanda definitely didn't deserve whatever Mr. Douglas was going to do to her. Plus, Cassie's father was someone who abandoned money for principle, a rare breed in the modern-day. As his daughter, Cassie wasn't one to see evil and do nothing. That was just how she was raised.

And if she could watch a fellow classmate, someone who she might even consider calling a friend, get molested and do nothing, then why should she expect someone to help her if she was ever in trouble?

Just as Cassie was thinking about how she should approach this, Mr. Douglas walked right up to Amanda. The girls have noticed him as well. The teacher quickly spoke to Amanda with a wide yet fake smile on.

"Your shooting posture is wrong. Here, I'll show you…"

Amanda was unsuspecting, and why should she be? This was her teacher! Of course, he would have her best interest in mind! She turned to the hoop and bent her knees, doing what she usually did when she shot hoops. Behind her, Mr. Douglas let out a small smile as he approached the young woman from behind, his hands ready for action.

Cassie could see what he was planning on doing. He wanted to wrap his arms around Amanda's arms and press his body against his. He even had the excuses ready. If Amanda complained, he would just back off, apologize, and reassure her that he was just trying to do his job. If necessary, he could even make himself look like a victim to the world and make Amanda into this oversensitive and hysterical woman who was way too happy to throw allegations around.

After all, this wasn't the first time he had done this, and this wouldn't be the last.

No one would really question it. Maybe there would be a handful of reports, but history had taught the teacher that the higher-ups in the school wouldn't take action unless things got too serious or he was stupid enough to be caught with solid evidence.

Just as he was about to touch her, Cassie acted. With a small flicker with her fingers, she sent a surge of telekinetic power his way. The strongest she could muster.

Just before Mr. Douglas's hand could make contact, his face suddenly turned pale, and a groan left his mouth as his body bent over in agony. It took all of the man's strength not to clutch onto his crotch and scream. It was as if someone punched him between the legs, but his eyes told him that wasn't the case. Either way, as the teacher backed off in pain, Amanda frowned and turned back to him, curious at what had happened.

"What's wrong, Mr. Douglas?"

"No...nothing." Keeping his expressions normal wasn't easy, but Mr. Douglas had no choice but to do it. Without another word, he abandoned his plans altogether and made his way to the side of the gym, where he took a few moments to process what just happened.

On the side, Cassie took a silent breath of relief. Well...at least that was enough to stop the teacher from his filthy plans. Of course, this was just a short-term solution. If this mysterious pain happened once or twice, Mr. Douglas wouldn't think much of it. But Cassie couldn't do this forever without raising some suspicions, and she needed a way to get rid of him altogether. It was clear that the teacher was hardly fit for his role.

If it was an adult or a more mature person in Cassie's shoes with her assets, this would have been easy. With all her powers, Cassie could easily take things into her own hands and carry out some private justice. But she was hardly that decisive. After all, behind all the fancy powers and shiny armor, Cassie was just a child.

She still had a lot to learn. Most importantly, she still believed the authorities should be the ones dealing with this.

The rest of the class went by smoothly. Cassie hit Mr. Douglas hard, and the teacher was too busy worrying about what was wrong with his testicles to make another move. That didn't mean Cassie forgot about the man altogether.

The rest of the day was thankfully uneventful. As the school day came to an end, right after the 20th time Cassie checked the time in boredom, she hopped onto her mother's car which took her straight home.

That day, as night fell and Cassie sat down with her parents for dinner, the young woman brought up the question to her parents. More specifically, her father.

"Dad, I have a question." After her father told the family a few stories that he thought to be funny, Cassie found an opportunity to speak up. Her father nodded at her, and Cassie took a deep breath before proceeding.

"So...how do I put this...the teacher in my PE class, I find him to be a little...weird."

Cassie talked slowly and chose her words carefully, not wanting to explain this the wrong way. Unfortunately for her, the first sentence was all it took to scare the shit out of her mother.

"Oh my god...did he do anything to you, Cassie?" Cassie's mother stood up in a mixture of shock and fear, her volume raising. Cassie sighed.

"No, mom. He didn't do anything...to me. It's just that...it's just that I saw him approach one of my friends inappropriately." She turned to her father. "Is there anything I can do about that? Maybe I can report him or something?"

Cassie's father sat there for a few moments, deep in thoughts before answering.

"Tell me exactly what happened. I want every detail."

Cassie did just that. She told everything as they were, aside from her role in what happened, of course. She simply claimed that the teacher broke off at the end for some unknown reason. When she was done, her father tapped his chin with a dark look.

"I suppose you can report him to the school dean. Actually, if we are going to report him, then maybe your mom and I can schedule a meeting or something. The issue is that it will be your word against his...with all due respect, Cassie, it will be a tough call. Unless we can get some solid evidence on what he did, then I'm afraid it's unlikely something can be done about this."

"But...shouldn't there be laws protecting us from these things?" Cassie asked in somewhat disbelief. So there was nothing she could do?

"If we know for sure that he did bad things with bad intentions, then yes. There are laws to punish him." The district attorney replied quietly. "But we don't have any proof, Cassie. Look, I trust you, Cassie, because you are my daughter and I know you. But the fact is, this may be no more than an accident. The fact is that we don't know. All you can say is that you saw him approaching your friend inappropriately...but he backed off without even touching her! It can mean a lot of things. It...it doesn't mean he's really a child predator."

"Except I know he is!" Cassie blurted out.

"How?"

"I…" That was when it hit Cassie. She knew what Mr. Douglas was thinking because she literally read his thoughts, but this wasn't something she could present to the school dean or to a court. In fact, she couldn't even present this to her own parents! "But...this should be enough to remove him for the moment, right? Or maybe get him fired altogether?"

"Innocent until proven guilty, Cassie. You should know this." Cassie's father explained. "Well, from a personal perspective and as someone who prosecutes people as a living, I am not a fan of that. But this is what keeps America from turning into a dystopia where suspicion equals conviction. If that's not the case, then anyone can derail the career of anyone else with a wild accusation. We...we need evidence, and the burden of proof lies on the accuser."

The man turned to his wife.

"How about this? I will call the Principal of Pather High tonight. Schedule a meeting. Cassie, you can tell him what you saw. Hopefully we can convince him to launch a full investigation. Maybe contact some of your teacher's former students and ask for testimonies. Perhaps they can set up some cameras in the gym. It's a long shot...usually, school officials will want to suppress things like this and act like everything is peachy, but if we threaten to make this public, then this may work."

Cassie's father turned to Cassie and threw her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, buddy. If your teacher is indeed a child predator, then we will make him pay."

Beside him, Cassie's mother nodded in agreement.

Cassie let out a small smile. Yes, there were flaws with her parents. If her father was more willing to make compromises, then the three of them might be living in a mansion now, and perhaps Cassie would be going to a private school with more reputable teachers. But if her father was anything, he was a fighter, and no amount of struggle or trouble could turn him away from fighting for justice and the law.

Cassie was proud to be his father's daughter.

At the same time, Cassie could hear the doubt in her father's voice. This wouldn't be an easy fight, but it would be a worthy one.

Speaking of evidence...Cassie took a quick glance at her hands.